Same here , same there

Before we moved to Shetland we were asked, have you experienced a winter in Shetland?
Well at that time no, but now we are 1/2 way through our first winter.

People always say there is only two weathers in Shetland, Wet and very wet. Well  I would like to add a few others.

                                                                                                     Sandwick

Windy and wet, very windy and wet, Gale force wind and wet, Hurricane force winds and wet but in between it can be still and dry, `a day between the weather' that's the time to be out and about.

                                                                                          Spiggie fishing Hut

Perhaps Sheffield may not get the extremes of the windy weather but other conditions can be worse.
The other year 28 inch of snow fell and we were unable to get the car out for a week, even though we lived on a bus route. In 2014 Shetland experienced far better, sunny drier weather than Sheffield but it had to turn sooner than later.

You have to embrace the conditions if you can, the windy weather can provide great photo opportunities while the snow transforms the landscape. The wet conditions have created many small lochs and it seems an age ago the some of the smaller Shetland lochs  completely dried up.

Lightening has struck several pylons in the south mainland causing a number of power cuts some  for eight hours or more. We experience a couple of power cuts but in the middle of the night so it did affect us as much. We are lucky that we have a gas cooker so not totally reliant on electic , but don't have any alternative to heat our home, having air - air heating.

A few buildings got direct hits by lightening which caused fires while the gales blew a bus and transport wagon over. Many Ferries failed to sail and even the buses were cancelled along with school closures

                                                                                       Spiggie North side

The great thing about Shetland weather is that the wide views provide a chance to see some fascinating cloud formations, in Sheffield we felt hemmed in by the buildings and only saw part of sky

                                                                                            Breiwick , Lerwick today

Today our hot water packed in so we phoned our plumber and he told us that he would be along tomorrow. That would never have happened in Sheffield.it would usually be a week if they turned up at all.

Also the weather conditions yesterday provided an opportunity to put our new window in, its great to see out over Sandwick, besides that it lets a lot more light in the living room. We have waited for the replacement window since the original one was broken on the 17 August.

Today the main road was closed for several hours to recover a lorry and excavator which went over the side of the road at Levenwick

                                                                                                      Levenwick